[Guido van Rossum] > My thoughts haven't changed at all. :-) > > The first round of discussion (on python-dev) brought up some > contentious issues where people disagreed strongly with particular > details proposed in the PEP, and I put those contentious issues at the > top of the review list. If you go to the latest version of the PEP on > the web (http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0285.html) you'll see that > I've added some other issues that were brought up in the more recent > discussion. I apologize for not having read the web version. I wasn't aware that it was being updated during the debate. I have a feeling I'm not alone in this mistake, so I'll take this opportunity to encourage others to read the web version also. > There's an educational issue that I'm just getting my head around. It > appears that for various psychological and linguistic reasons, newbies > naturally write > > if b == True: ... > > when they first encounter a bool variable and have to test whether > it's true. I believe that this is most of Laura's issue. The only > reasonable solution for this is that the Zen master slaps them over > the head with a stick, and they learn to write > > if b: ... Yes. And I think describing Python's handling of truth values as "something vs. nothing" has real merit as a learning aid. It will certainly keep me from falling into the if b == True: trap. In summary, I agree with your clarifications and I'm +1 on the PEP. --- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech
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